Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 1932. THE N.S.W. ELECTION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17802, 10 June 1932, Page 6

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 1932. THE N.S.W. ELECTION

Jt is sale to say Unit public attention not only .in New South Wales and throughout the Commonwealth, but also in New Zealand, will be focussed

with an intensity of interest, never previously exceeded upon the result, of the pollino- to take place to-morrow in the Mother Slate of the Commonwealth. The issue is one fraught with far-reaching consequences, for over and above the personality of those who arc to have control of New South Wales administration for

the next few years is the question of the solvency of the State and (lie Commonwealth, and the possibility of their being able to make recovery from the present era of depression. New Zealand's .interest in the election lies in the fact that the fortunes of this Dominion are very largely interwoven with those of the neighboring Commonwealth and that should Australia become involved in financial chaos the loss of confidence, destruction of credit, and impairment of trade would inevitably reflect themselves 1o some extent, upon Now Zealand. In the minds of many people abroad tho term. “Australasia’ still persists and New Zealand is not dissociated from Australia, but is regarded if not. ns an actual partner in the Commonwealth as a very close relation to it, ami it is probable that if through a policy of default and repudiation Australia’s credit went smash that of New Zealand would not escape, deterioration. Such a calamity as the return to power in the, most populous State of a party whose principal planks of policy are cancellation of obligations to bondholders and the confiscation involved in its iniquitous Mortgages Bill, whose aims are Socialistic and anti-imperial, would greatly prejudice the prospects of the corning Ottawa Conference. Australia’s representation thereat would lie weakened and the whole of

ibe negotiations from thh. quarter of the globe would be viewed with distrust. No satisfactory framework of inter-inqierial trade could be built up with New South Wale* left out, and yet what, reliance could be placed upon agreements that might be entered into with Australia in which so large a section of the people ns those embraced in that State had endorsed the principles enunciated by Air. Lang and his colleagues. For New South Wales itself the result of a return to the Lang regime would bo disastrous in the extreme. At present the floating flebt of the Slate on Treasury Bills is in the region of £31,000,000, and the drift in 'public finance is continuing at

the rate of £10,000,000 a year. The first, tusk of restoring the finances to a sound position will tax to the utmost tlie statecraft of Ministers and the resources of the people. Without the full co-operation and support of the Loan Council it would be impossible. The Commonwealth obviously cannot; continue indefinitely to cover the default of that State .in order to preserve the good name of Australia. Its attempt to restore the fortunes of the Commonwealth by adherence to the Premiers’ Plan would be seriously prejudiced and if. could not possibly a fiord to give New South Wales further relief'. That State would have to shift for itself, and as Mr, Lang has provided no remedy except a capital levy which amounts to confiscation, tlie outlook is hopeless. No one would lend him money and the effect of such taxation as lie has proposed would be to close down businesses and vastly increase the number of unemployed. Industries holding out any hope of solvency would transfer to other States,'as they have been doing during the [cist 18 months. The proposal to make a capital levy on banks and financial institutions would be sure to defeat itself, for it would assuredly force the withdrawal of capital from New South Wales, whilst the alternative proposal to issue debentures based on hypothecation of the proceeds of the unemployment tax for three years, is equally doomed to failure. The State already is in a desperate financial plight, and only tho plain, courageous and honest policy initiated by the, Stevens Government can save it. Its liabilities are colossal and cannot; bo swept away by the stroke of a pen. The alternatives facing the New Booth Wales electors are a return to financial solvency and honest methods of administration or a complete economic collapse, with unemployment and distress much more acute than they are at present. At the last election they allowed themselves to be sadly misled and if they have not learned from the bitter experience attendant upon 18 months of misrule they must be singularly blind to their own best interests. They have now the opportunity to confirm in office inen who have set themselves to the difficult task of reorganising a notoriously bad administration, and who will heartily co-operate with the Ministries in the other States of the Commonwealth in the work of hastening Australia’s rehabilitation. Ihe fact, that the influence of the Federal Labor Party is strongly on the side of the policy which all the other Governments have adopted, and has been concentrated on exposing the i alludes of the Lang plan, gives hope that the people who formerly were led into an unwise political adventure will retrace their steps and return to paths of snnitv, honor, and fair dealing, along which only will the way to recovery be found.